


Countdown

by MariaBronn



Category: Black Widow (Comics), Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers Friendship, F/M, Not Canon Compliant, Russia, Soulmate-Identifying Timers, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-02
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-15 20:41:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18677044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MariaBronn/pseuds/MariaBronn
Summary: So essentially the Soulmate AU I'm using is that they have like pedometers counting down until you meet the love of your life/the one whom you marry. Steve has a very typical number, its high but not to high. Bucky Barnes has an astronomically high number that almost wraps around his whole wrist.This will be approximately 5 chapters. I apologize that chapter 2 is so short, but my plan for chapter 4 is loooong and I've skipped around writing them, whoops





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> khorosho - alright/good  
> it means alright in this case :)

Every little human being brought into this world has a rather large number printed on their wrist. It’s not tattooed, and it’s not written there to keep up with the population. Every child in this word is born with a countdown. Not to their death, but to their love. 

James Barnes was a rough rambunctious little eight year old with dark blue eyes and a fondness for catching bugs. Even more fun was watching the numbers on his wrist go down as he ran. He would take off from his yard to his friend’s house and look at the 50 plus steps that had vanished. He never could get the number small enough to only show on one side of his wrist. It wasn’t that James was in a hurry to fall in love, it was just the wonder and awe of the number falling keeping him running.  
His friend Stevie had a number on his wrist as well. It was far from a small number but it was considerably smaller than Bucky’s. They did almost everything together; caught bugs, climbed ladders to places they didn't belong until Steve was out of breath.  
Everything was together until they grew into young men and the war called on them. Bucky, an avid runner and a strong man, was quickly enlisted. Steve, who could never keep up, and wheezed and caught a cold every month, feared he’d be stuck in Brooklyn while Bucky did what every man his age was doing. He tried lying, he tried weird cure-alls but nothing worked.  
Everything changed though, his fate ran another course and he was introduced to a man named Stark. Steve hadn’t looked at his wrist in a long time, he had seen it was getting low, it was around 50 as he made his way to the lab. He didn't have a chance to look at it before going through the process to become much more of a man than most. The world swayed and his eyes were foggy but he did catch sight of the number on his wrist as he stepped down. 2...1…  
It didn't register right away, but then he looked. Peggy Carter stood in front of him. She had a look of amazement on her face. A dark red zero was sitting on his wrist. She quickly pulled up her sleeve to reveal a zero. They looked at each other. Steve sucked in a deep breath, “Oh...OH!” 

+++

Bucky had been running, training, shooting. And the number on his wrist seemed to never get lower. He was much older now and the curiosity for his countdown had turned to impatience. It was the longest and largest number the other soldiers swore to have ever seen. 

+++

Falling. Falling. The only word filling his mind. The only thing he felt as he fell was pure panic and terror. He screamed and clawed at the air. He could barely form a thought, but as he gripped at nothing and he felt fear fill his muscle, he saw his wrist. Over a billion steps to take to find love. And he was going to die. Going to die. Now his mind whorled in horror at the thought of death. He was falling and he was going to die...going to die...THUD. James Barnes body hit the ground. 

+++

 

The Winter Soldier had a number on his wrist. It got smaller every time he went out for a mission. But then he was promptly put on ice. It had just made it to 12 digits when he was told to go to America.  
He sauntered over wreckage and shot at his targets. He blew up cars that he deemed where in his way. His wrist was counting down. But his mind was elsewhere. It was on targets. On movements.  
Fighting was the only thing on his mind. It was relaxing in a way. Until he went flying head over heels and lost his mask.  
“Bucky?”  
“Who the hell is Bucky?”

 

+++

 

It’s been a year and Bucky knows who Bucky is. Mostly. Steve’s wrist has a new countdown on it that was very high. But Bucky’s had lessened greatly. It just hit only 6 digits and he's sitting on his bed reading a book.  
The redhead he shot a year prior waltzed into his room. She was Natasha. The Natasha he found when he was in Russia. Then found again in America. She began prodding him along, “Get out of bed lazy bones.” She poked him in the side. He laughed and smiled, his warm but painful smile. He let her drag him out of bed, his heavy muscular body hit the bedroom floor with a thud.  
“Ugh…khorosho! I'm up, I'm up!” he moaned as he rubbed his backside. He had not expected her to be so rough pulling him out of bed. Bucky looked up at Nat. She was a great friend. Bucky definitely had feelings for her that were left over from their shared time in Russia, but that was the Winter Soldier who only had about 3 emotions. Mad, angry, and, hungry. Was hungry an emotion? He thought to himself. He was worried the feelings were only stemming from remembering the sexual parts of their past relationship. It was in snippets of memory, but he could see her...a flash of porcelain skin and red hair. Her excitement.  
He was snapped back to reality as Nat pulled him to his feet.  
God, this woman is strong.  
Nat‘s eyes watched him as he rubbed at his beard. “What ya thinking, James?”  
“That I’d really rather read than go running.”  
“You wanna be a lazy old man I see.”  
“Nooo that's not it,” he picked up his book, “I just really wanna know what happens to the lightning thief.”  
Nat smiled, she’d given Wanda that book a couple weeks ago. James smiled a little lopsided, not so much that he looked mischievous, but just enough that looked like he held so many secrets. The light hearted, fun secrets and the dark, painful secrets. Natasha pulled her hair up in a bun and the elastic snapped. Bucky laughed and pulled an elastic band from his bedside table and handed it too, grabbed another for himself and started to prod the redhead out the room. “Git, I’ll change to run.”

+++

Their run was long and terrible and sweaty. The hot sun burned down on them and matted Bucky’s loose hair to his forehead. Nat, drenched in sweat as well, had managed to keep her hair perfect. Red curls that had only frizzed a little somehow tickled at her neck and Bucky couldn't help but stare. He suddenly felt like a weirdo and took a step back. He never looked to his wrist. It said 6.  
Nat closed the gap he had just made and stepped forward.  
“James…” Natasha looked at his blue eyes and his jaw outlined in stubble. She wondered if he remembered Russia as much as she did.  
He stepped back again, man her eyes could be intense. They were staring into his eyes. But it felt to him as if she was staring right as his memories of her. His face was thankfully already red with exertion, otherwise the assassin may have seen his blushing face.

5…

James gulped, “Yes?”  
She got closer, he hesitantly stepped back.

4…

“How much do you remember..?”

3… 

Barnes was not normally a nervous man, but her dark hazel eyes were intense and he thought back to Russia. Some of it filled him with dread. Other parts excited him, the parts where he got to see Natasha. The memories that made him feel like a perv for having. 

“I- I remember waking up in a strange place…”

“Do you remember me?”

2…

He heated up in the face. He remembered all of Natasha, her skin in the dark, her skin in the light. The flash in her eyes when they sparred. He remembered that she was the only reason he was alive. And in that moment he spilled out every memory he had of her. Some of it embarrassed him to say aloud, but other moments where soft and sweet. He noticed it wasn't just the sexual parts he could recall, but the moments they shared that kept him human. When she would hold him, rub his head and tell him made up stories.  
She stepped towards him again and held out her hands. He looked at her wrist. It said 1. 

Bucky teared up right there. That had to mean she was his and he was hers.  
He stepped forward and placed his hands in hers. His wrist read 1. He held her hands and smiled.  
“I remember all of you,” she brushed his sweat matted hair out of his eyes and pulled him into a hug.  
As they stepped into the hug their wrists read zero and Bucky had accidently let a few tears fall from his eyes and down his cheek.  
Nat had not seemed to noticed yet, so Bucky held up his wrist. She had a look of surprise as she held hers up too. She backed up out of the hug and looked at him in surprise. She had seen her numbers getting smaller but was deeply in denial about it.  
“But you could never want me!”  
“Of course I could, Nat.” James enveloped her into another hug. Hugs were nice, he could remember hugging a lot of people before Russia. “I will always want you. I even need you.”  
He felt tempted to kiss her but he knew better and settled for a forehead kiss. Nat held her tears back for longer than he had but soon the water works were going as she clung to him and he held her. He rubbed her back and as she calmed down he smiled and said, “Now c’mon let’s go get some water. We’re ‘bout to dehydrate out here.” 

+++


	2. Chapter 2

Bucky looked around himself at all of Wakanda. He felt as if he was falling again, he felt like the the train had lurched and his body had dropped again. He was falling down, he went on his knees.  
“Steve..?”  
His body drifted away. 

+++

“Steve!” Natasha ran to him. She saw the look on his face. They had tried to account for everyone but between the fallen and disappeared they were missing just too many people. “Is Bucky with you?”  
Steve’s face said it all. He was still too in shock to begin crying. He just looked defeated. Nat embraced him and they stayed that for a long time. Nat couldn’t think. Steve began to bawl his eyes out as the shock faded. He had finally saved his best friend just to have him taken away so quickly. Nat looked to her wrist, it read zero, she fell to her knees in the dirt and held her face in her hands; blond hair covered her wet eyes as she screamed. It was so numb, everything around her was numb and meaningless without him. 

+++

Life rolled on for the two of them. Nat’s wrist never changed from zero. Steve’s had quite a number there, it was encouraging for him to think he could find love again. Nat had held onto the hope of finding him again for about a year, but she eventually had to let that hope die. Her hair was grown out, back to that colour James had loved. It hurt so bad to be dubbed Black Widow.


	3. Chapter 3

Steve had seen a lot, like, a lot, in his lifetime that had spanned generations. But now he had traveled through time. Add that to the list of things Peggy Carter would never believe. He saw her only briefly and it tore him apart. He of course thought of her often, but seeing her, that broke his beating heart. When he was first fished out the ice he had a new number on his wrist, that had not mattered to him at that point though. Between the confusion of the 2000’s and this man with his eye patch, then the Battle of New York, he wasn't seeing love on the menu. He was much more tech savvy though these days.

You have to be tech savvy to be friends with Tony, he thought to himself. He still thought of him in the present. And it hurt when he corrected his thoughts to the past tense. Pepper had been with Tony when he died and that did bring him some comfort. 

He enjoyed being around Sharon. His wrist was still high at the time and hers was even longer, so they weren't a likely pair. She had a resemblance to Peggy. But she would never be Margaret Carter, no one could be. The kiss he had shared with Sharon was sweet and kind, but it was nothing like holding Agent Carter in your arms. 

After being assigned to replace the stones, he had two thoughts. A possibly life altering thought. He talked to Bucky about it. He didn't go into detail though. So as not to give too much hope to his grieving friend.

His first thought was that if he can go back in time, then he ought to try and have a real life. And if possible, to be with Peggy in that real life. His second thought was that he might be able to bring Natasha home. He didn't want to give Buck, or Clint, too much hope, just in case it was irreversible.

Clint was too shaken up, but at least he had gotten his family back. Bucky was just a panic stricken mess. He needed some serious leave time. The stress of her losing him and now he had lost her was putting a strain on their heartstrings. 

So Steve told Bucky only of his plan to find Peggy and suited up to return the stones.

+++


End file.
